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In this thesis I address several fundamental questions in sexual selection and mate choice theory, using the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis. I show that L. iongipalpis satisfies the criteria for a lek-breeding species. Males aggregated at sites near hosts which females visited to mate and feed, but a male's access to a resource did not appear to detennine his mating success. Females were free to reject unwanted males and male mating success was typically skewed. Field data suggest that the mating system may have evolved because of female preferences for larger leks, coupled with a hotspot-type mechanism: male distribution was correlated with resources availability, while females distribution was correlated with lek size. In the laboratory, females preferentially mated with middle-aged males. Within this age class, mating success was correlated with increased amounts of pheromone and increased investment in wing-fluttering. Across age classes, females appeared to gain a direct fitness payoff from their choice of mate through increased probability of fertilisation, but the presence of other mechanisms was not investigated. By testing simultaneously the predictions of current models using similar age males, I was able to assess their relative importance for the maintenance of female choice. I found weak evidence to support direct benefits: females that chose to mate with successful males survived longer post-oviposition than females with less successful mates. This did not translate into increased total longevity or increased fecundity. I found no evidence in favour of good-genes models: offspring of preferred males did not survive longer than offspring of less preferred males, nor were their daughters more fecund. Male attractiveness was, however, heritable: sons sired by preferred males achieved higher mating success than sons of less preferred fathers. These results suggest that a Fisherian mechanism is in part responsible for the maintenance of female mating preferences in L. iongipaipis.

This research explores the relationship between sexual exploitability and sexual attractiveness. Sexual exploitability describes the ease with which a woman could be pressured, deceived, or coerced into sex, or sexually assaulted. Study 1 documented novel cues to sexual exploitability. Moreover, men found women displaying these cues to be attractive as short-term mates, supporting the hypothesis that men’s attraction functions to motivate the pursuit of sexually accessible women. In Study 2, it was determined that women also perceived other women who displayed cues to exploitability as sexually attractive to men. Because displaying exploitability enhances a woman’s sexual attractiveness, women may have co-evolved mate attraction mechanisms designed to capitalize on this feature of male sexual psychology. In Study 3, it was hypothesized that three individual differences would predict which women would be more likely to signal exploitability as a mate attraction tactic: propensity towards short-term mating, relationship status, and self-perceived mate value. Women self-reported their likelihood of using mate attraction tactics involving the intentional display of exploitability cues. Women inclined toward casual sex were more likely to report using such tactics. In Study 4, a separate set of female participants made a hypothetical video dating profile to provide a record of their actual behavior in a mate attraction scenario. Women inclined toward short-term mating and high in the personality characteristic of Openness to Experience were more likely than their female counterparts to display exploitability cues in their videos. These convergent results across studies support the hypothesis that women pursuing short-term mating capitalize on the relationship between exploitability and attractiveness to achieve their mating goals. Results from these studies expand our knowledge of sexual exploitability and mate attraction. Documentation of a comprehensive list of cues to exploitability expands our knowledge of potential predictors of sexual victimization. Identification of individual differences that predict which women may functionally display exploitability cues increases our understanding of which women may be at greater risk for sexual exploitation. / text

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Montagnea arenaria [Hymenogastrales, Basidiomycota] , adapted to desert and xeric habitats, is morphologically and phenotypically variable. Species have been described on the basis of macromorphology and spore shape and size. This study was initiated to investigate populations of M. arenaria from Namibia in Africa and the Southwestern United States. It was hypothesized that biological species would exist in the widely separated populations. Spores from single sporocarps were germinated, single spore isolates were obtained and selfed to obtain mating types. On transfer, clamp connections were not maintained and mating patterns could not be achieved. Nuclear staining revealed multinuclei in the hyphae of both single spore isolates and compatible crosses. Spores were stained and found to have either 1 or 2 nuclei, but only four sterigmate basidia were observed. Limited partial compatibility was achieved and in some cases clamp connections formed within and between crosses from the two continents. Genomic DNA was extracted from old herbarium specimens. The ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS4 regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA were amplified and sequenced directly. Phylogenetic analysis using PAUP was performed. The hypothesis that Montagnea would form different biological species based on continental separation was rejected. In fact, the complex of isolates from widely varying locations not only had partial compatibility, but the variation in ITS sequences among widely distributed collections was relatively low. Lastly, no correlation between sporocarp size and gene flow among specimens from a wide variety of habitats was found. It appears that M. arenaria is a single, highly variable, widely distributed species. / Master of Science

Short-term mating mechanisms should be activated only under conditions in which, ancestrally, the benefits were recurrently greater and the costs were recurrently lower than those of other potential mating strategies. The purpose of this dissertation was twofold: 1) to identify benefits and costs of short-term mating to men and women and to rank them based on magnitude, 2) and to identify how sex-specific adaptive individual differences previously known to affect mating success shift perceptions of the magnitude of, and likelihood of receiving, potential benefits and costs. To identify and rank potential benefits and costs, participants listed up to ten potential benefits and costs men and women may experience when engaging in short-term mating. A second group of participants rated the benefits and costs for how beneficial and how costly they are. A second study examined how sex-specific adaptive individual differences shift perceptions of the magnitude of, and likelihood of receiving, the nominated benefits and costs. Participants completed several questionnaires designed to measure relevant demographics and family history, personality, and previous and current mating experiences. Participants also provided their perceptions of the magnitude of each of the benefits and costs, and the perceived likelihood someone could receive each outcome. Results indicated women’s perceptions did not differ as a function of their self-perceived mate value, exposure to early environmental stress, relationship status or satisfaction, but did differ as a function of their feelings of sexual regret. Similarly, men’s self-perceived mate value, relationship status and satisfaction did not influence perceptions of short-term mating, but the amount of effort currently invested into mating and feelings of sexual regret did. Overall, this dissertation contributes a novel extension of previous research on short-term mating. This is the first study to examine the costs to women, and the benefits and costs to men of short-term mating, and the first study to examine how individual differences may shift perceptions of those benefits and costs. Findings from the current set of studies provide a more thorough understanding of men’s and women’s evolved mating psychology and highlight fruitful avenues for future research. / text